Baker, Baldwin, King, Rice Families – Suffolk

I’ve wanted to delve more into my UK ancestry for some time and if I wanted to continue I had to at least think about how I was going to do that, So on Thursday, I signed up for the premium monthly subscription through the www.ancestry.co.uk (which is where my original account was set up). So there, I did it even though I was hesitant about hitting the submit button.

Anyway, I digress from the original topic of this post. Please be with me, as this is a long post, but I just had to write down my research and notes as I went along over the last couple of days. Hope it’s not too confusing and overall the end should show some true findings on the Baldwin, Baker, King and Rice Families connections in Suffolk, England. The sites I used were as follows:

Whilst searching for information on my ancestor, William George Baker (c1836-1881) and his wife Susan Baldwin (1842-1920), I saw that a number of trees had Susan’s parents different to what I had.

Most of the trees I found, had Susan’s mother to be Sarah Munnings, one has Sarah (no surname) and another Sarah Chambers and most also have the same ‘6’ children attached to them. There is a marriage in Dec 1825 between a John Baldwin & Sarah Munnings and from what I can see on the census records, John & Sarah Munnings had 6 children, one a Susan Baldwin born in 1845 in Suffolk, which is why there is some confusion. I do believe that this marriage and the associated children are not connected to my John & Sarah Baldwin. (The children were: John 1832, Charles 1836, Ann 1840, David 1843, Susan 1845 and Mary 1850).

I do think the following marriage between John & Sarah is the more likely marriage for my ancestors:

Parish Records Collection: 1538-2005

Date: 26.11.1826

Parish: Bures St Mary

Place: Newtown

County: Suffolk

Source: Suffolk Marriage Index: 1813-1837 (FindMyPast)

I have not found a record for a marriage between a John Baldwin & Sarah Chambers.

Here is a list of information that I already had:

Records in Australia show that Susan’s parents were John & Sarah Baldwin and she was from Bures, Suffolk and born around 1844.

On the shipping record for when William George & Susan Baker arrived in NSW in 1865, William is listed as having an ‘Uncle George King’ already living at Bundarra. I’m yet to find any shipping record of a George King arriving here prior to 1865 but there is a George King living at Bundarra in 1872.

On the marriage certificate of William & Susan in 1863, one of the witnesses is “MaryAnn Rice”.

For William Baker, his parents were Samuel Baker & Sarah King. A marriage was found in 1831 at Boxford, Suffolk.

I have a death certificate for a Sarah Baldwin died 4th June 1856 at Bures St Mary, Suffolk. She was 54 years and was the ‘wife of John Baldwin, agricultural labourer’. Now that I’m looking more into this, I did find another two deaths for “Sarah Baldwin’” in the same area of Suffolk, both in 1859. One in Sudbury (4a/285) and the other, Bury St Edmonds (4a/337). I’m thinking now that maybe the death in 1856 is not the death for my Sarah. I’m thinking the one in Sudbury is the more likely one. Sarah would have died after 1851 & before the 1861 census, as John is listed as a widower in 1861.

In the 1871 UK Census, John Baldwin is shown as being a lodger with James & Mary Ann Rice at Assington, Sudbury, Suffolk and is 65, occupation is ‘Soldier – Pensioner’ and was born in Bures, St Mary.

John Baldwin died 28th June 1871 at Assington, Suffolk. He was 65 and his occupation is listed as ‘Chelsea Pensioner’. I found John’s military record over at FindMyPast the other night and even though it is a little hard to read he states he was 18 years old and was born at Bures, St Mary and enlisted on the 14th November 1825 and served until 1846, which is probably why John & Sarah are not in the 1841 UK census as he served in the East Indies for almost 12 years, though I’m not sure of the date he left & returned at this stage.

James Rice married MaryAnn Baldwin in 1860 (4a/629) at Sudbury, Suffolk.

A number of public trees have James’ parents as Samuel Rice & Mary King. On one particular tree, Mary King’s parents are listed as:

I find the surname of King of interest here, seeing that William Baker had an Uncle George King already living in the colony, when he arrived in 1865. As yet, I have not found a shipping record that matches to this George King but I do think that this King family is related as Samuel Rice & Mary King were married on the same day in Boxford, Suffolk as Samuel Baker & Sarah King, the parents of William George Baker.